Book Review: The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Happily a book of fiction that does a nice job covering the emotions of grief in a real way. I’ve read several that devolve into platitudes and the commonly held myths of grief but not this one. The author also avoided wrapping grief up in a nice pretty package with a neat bow on top. Grief is messy and I prefer it when novels don’t send the message that it’s easy to tie up or bring to a swift end.

Despite a topic that could be perceived as heavy, the story moves along smoothly. I looked forward to reading it each evening. As life would have it, one of my book club friends was dying while I was reading this book. I took it with me to hospice and appreciated the diversion it offered. It was neither too grim nor too fatuous. I think she would have liked it too.

“You’ve been here before. It won’t kill you. It feels like you can’t breathe, but you actually are breathing. It feels like you’ll never stop crying, but you actually will.”